Mission Statement

Primary sources in law are mainly located and understood by the corresponding secondary sources. Legal research and scholarship therefore demands the essential use and citation of secondary legal sources. Majority of these sources that are most fit for academic research as also for referencing in court documents are pay-walled, available only to those who can afford high subscription fees for access to the select legal databases.

We at JurisOpen believe that law is basic and that legal information should be freely and widely accessible. Even though a considerable number of free legal websites and search options on the Internet continue to serve the information needs of many, their authenticity & reliability remains largely questionable.

According to the Brooklyn Law School Survey conducted by the Association of Legal Writing Directors in 2010, while four-fifth of the surveyed students reported using free websites to conduct legal research, a whopping majority of them (88%) reported checking their reliability. The more recent ABA Legal Technology SurveyReportpublished in 2014 by the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Centre also revealed that while lawyers conducted a free web search as their first step, they were ultimately far more satisfied with fee-based resources.

We at JurisOpen thus intend to upscale the standards of free access to secondary legal information as we recognize the crucial need of ensuring its authenticity & reliability for not only making quality legal information widely accessible to the public but also in significantly minimizing the overall cost of legal research.

Our mission at JurisOpen is to build an online repository of authentic & reliable secondary legal materials from where people can cite for free. To contribute, click here.